CBS Extends Debut of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”

The opening night telecast of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on tonight has been extended by nine minutes.

The airtime will be 11:35 p.m. to 12:44 a.m. ET, and the first set of guests will be Oscar winner George Clooney, Republican presidential candidate and former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush, and a musical performance by “The Late Show’s” bandleader Jon Batiste with his band Stay Human.

Lead-out “The Late Late Show with James Corden” will air from 12:44-1:44 a.m., and will feature guests Bradley Cooper, actor Jake McDorman, actor Andrew Garfield, and a musical performance by Wiz Khalifa featuring Fall Out Boy.

Reuters reports Colbert's degree of success will ultimately decide whether he ushers in a ratings realignment of the late-night TV scene - either by overtaking his NBC counterpart Jimmy Fallon and the decades-long dominance of "The Tonight Show," or falling to No. 3 behind ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

Colbert outside the window of his office, which overlooks a new marquee at the Ed Sullivan Theater. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times

Steering the "Late Show" franchise to No. 1 in the Nielsen rankings will not be easy.

Colbert, 51, is certainly younger than Letterman, his CBS predecessor, who was 68 when he retired in May. Colbert's 8 million-plus Twitter following dwarfs Letterman's and the median age of his "Colbert Report" audience was far below that of "Late Show."

But Fallon, 40, already has expanded the ratings of his predecessor, Jay Leno, both in overall viewers and among the key demographic of young adults, while establishing a robust following of his own on Twitter and YouTube.

Critics also question whether the real Colbert will prove as amusing as the egocentric, ultra-patriotic political commentator he inhabited for so long, or whether viewers will find his personal brand of humor to be too snarky.